Pochettino turns on players after Vardy steals show
Mauricio Pochettino accused Tottenham Hotspur of lacking “fight” as they capitulated to Leicester during a “sloppy” first-half which left their manager furious and left any lingering Premier League title hopes surely in tatters. Having suggested it may be all over last weekend, after the home draw against West Bromwich Albion, it is now.
At times this victory felt like the Leicester of two seasons ago, the Leicester who so wonderfully won the league title with the relentless Jamie Vardy running riot up front and Riyad Mahrez full of guile and trickery out wide. Both scored wonderful goals.
About time, Vardy later said. But it did not feel like the Spurs of back then, who tried to chase them down and ran them so close. In fact, having almost won the league in the past two campaigns, Spurs could be 16 points behind leaders Manchester City should they beat Southampton at home on Wednesday.
They are eight points behind second-placed Manchester United and have lost four leagues games already; as many as in the whole of last season.
In truth, Spurs are in a fight to finish in the top four, and could even drop to seventh if other results go against them. They suffered their third successive away defeat in the league and have now won only one of their last five league matches. Pochettino knows it. His face betrayed his anger and he did not hold back. He sent his team back out early after half-time, he took his seat even before that and his stiff body language was of a man who felt let down. He was.
“It’s difficult to analyse the game,” he began. “We started so sloppy. The performance in the first-half disappointed us a lot. First you must compete and fight and be focused, and then quality will appear. Leicester showed more than us. They were ready to fight in the first half. Even if the game was open, and we had chances to score and stay in the game, we were poor and this is disappointing and frustrating. It’s not about tactics or systems or selections. It’s about the collective. The collective performance was so poor.”
Even so Spurs did, indeed, spurn chances. Good chances. Leicester, despite going two goals up in that first 45 minutes, were also indebted to goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who made a couple of smart, oneon-one saves to deny Dele Alli and Moussa Dembele.
And after the re-start, Christian Eriksen and substitute Fernando Llorente – who had also set up Eriksen – missed glaring opportunities from inside the six-yard area. Eriksen miscued wide, Llorente ballooned over from Serge Aurier’s cross. Even after that, in injury time, they could and probably should have won a penalty when Wilfried Ndidi tried to block Danny Rose as he shaped to shoot, and appeared to catch his foot.
“It’s OK, nothing to say,” Pochettino commented curtly on that decision by referee Anthony Taylor, and he was right to suggest that, despite everything, Spurs could have drawn or even won.
“We need to learn and fight from the first minute,” he said. “If you don’t fight in the Premier League, the quality gap is even. You cannot afford [to have] no fight. You cannot win games.”
The opening goal was vintage Vardy; it was superb and that was appropriate enough given it was also the 100th league goal of his career. It came as Harry Maguire stepped forward from defence – as he has done to earn a place in the England squad – and sent the ball out wide to Marc Albrighton. He flighted an astute pass over for Vardy, who stole in between Eric Dier and Davinson Sanchez and re- acted brilliantly to loft a controlled, right-footed volley over the stranded goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris.
He wheeled away in celebration, cupping his ear to the Spurs fans who had goaded him about the involvement of his wife, Rebecca, in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. It was Spurs, though, who were facing the endurance trial with, on half-time, Mahrez starting and finishing a counter-attack. He ran on to Ndidi’s pass, teased Jan Vertonghen, shifted the ball inside and curled a left-foot shot around Lloris to double the advantage.
Spurs were stunned – with the impressive Vicente Iborra running the midfield – and reacted to Pochettino’s rebuke by dominating possession to such an extent in the
second-half that they claimed 63 per cent. It felt like more. But it was not until Erik Lamela came on late – 400 injury-ravaged days since his previous appearance – that things began to happen for them. With his third touch, Lamela smartly played the ball through to Harry Kane, who turned and hammered it high into the net for a fine finish.
There was still time. But more chances were wasted and Leicester, deservedly, held on for the win that took them into the top half of the table, with manager Claude Puel hailing it as their best performance in the five matches since he took over. It was and he should be credited with Leicester getting back to being Leicester. For Pochettino and his Spurs side it was among the worst since he has been there.
“Not good enough,” Alli admitted. It was not.